Update October 10, 2007

Dear Friends,

Thank you for praying faithfully. Sierra Rose has experienced continual improvments over the past several days. I'll try to post a more recent photograph of Sierra here tomorrow.

IMPROVEMENTS
-Sierra was removed from the ventilator on Monday and she has been breathing well on her own.
-Sierra has just one IV (and she's only taking seizure medicine) and a feeding tube.
-Sierra's warmer has been turned off. She has been able to maintain good body temperature on her own.
-These improvements have allowed her parents and family members to hold her much more easily.
-Sierra has continued to be more wakeful. She opens her eyes several times each day and wiggles around a lot.
-Sierra has been digesting milk well. Nurses increased the amount she receives to 5 cc (cubic centimeters) per hour.
-J's family is in town. They have been a huge blessing to the family.

AREAS OF PRAYER
-Sierra's myoclonus is up and down, but mostly down. Pray that it continues to subside.
-Pray that Sierra will be able to digest even more milk so that she can graduate to a bottle.
-Sierra appears to have at least a mild sucking reflex. R and a therapist are going to train her even more. Pray that Sierra's sucking reflex will increase so that she can graduate to nursing.
-Pray that Sierra will be able to process and eliminate the mucus and other elements that accumulate.

Thank you for being our friends. It's encouraging for us to know that so many people are praying for little Sierra Rose and the rest of the family.

--MK